Letter of Ida Lenti-Bruneli, 26 February 1993

Before the Second World War I worked as a baby sitter in a Jewish family, whose name I unfortunately can hardly remember. I think the family name was Calmann [the first name of the children’s father – Kalman Toth], but I’m not completely sure.

I had to look after three children called Fiorenza, Lisetta and Alessandro. During the war we moved to Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo), in Tuscany, and the father was deported – I don’t know where exactly. His wife, Jiuci, died suddenly of heart disease in 1944, and before dying she entrusted me with the responsibility of the three children.

I took them with me to my mother’s house in Monselice (Padova), where we tried to bring them up with the help of the local authorities.
In the meanwhile we made some researches to find someone of the family who had survived and would be glad to know about the children.
Finally we found an uncle, the mother’s brother, who lived in Ramat David. When he came to know about the children, he asked to send them to Israel.

I went with them from Monselice to Aversa. The journey took us a month. Once there, I left them with some people who were supposed to take them to Naples, where they had to take the boat. I still remember the moment when I had to leave them, and the youngest of the three, Alessandro, ran after the truck that was carrying me home. He was crying and he called my name! But I could not go with them and went back to my home town.

Once there, they wrote to me and they kept in contact with me.
Las week I came to know that one of them is coming to Italy. I will probably see him and ask him for the names and present addresses of the members of the family…

I hope you will understand that it’s difficult to tell such a long story in a few words, and thank you for your interet.